&lt;p>MEPS from the COVI Committee talk with representatives from pharmaceutical companies that worked on developing vaccines and therapeutics during the COVID-19 pandemic. Dr Rudolf Ertl, Senior Vice-President Commercial Operations (Gilead Sciences), Thomas Triomphe, Executive Vice-President of Vaccines (Sanofi), Iskra Reic, Executive Vice-President of Europe and Canada, (AstraZeneca) and Stéphane Bancel, Chief Executive Officer, (Moderna) participate to the debate.&lt;/p>

EU's response to covid-19 (T)

Special Committee COVID-19 pandemic: lessons learned and recommendations for the future

COVID-19 - debate with the pharmaceutical industry: extracts from the exchange of views with representatives from Gilead Sciences, Sanofi, AstraZeneca and Moderna

SOUNDBITE (English), Kathleen VAN BREMPT (S&amp;D, BE), Chair of COVI committee, What barriers did you come across during this pandemic? And of course, this is the COVI committee that wants not just the lessons learnt. What we actually want to do is prepare Europe in the future for future pandemics.

SOUNDBITE (English), TRIOMPHE Tomas, Executive Vice-President of Vaccines, Sanofi, The production capacity of covid-19 vaccines far exceeds the number of doses that can be administered. We are talking about 12 to 13 billion doses of production. This is up to nine billion of injectable doses on a yearly basis. The challenge is no longer the vaccine supply, but the capacity to successfully deliver a national vaccination campaigns, especially in adults and in the elderly.

SOUNDBITE (English), Rudolf ERTL, Senior Vice-President Commercial Operations, Gilead Sciences, The different types of virus, the mutations, did not affect the efficacy of remdesivir. That is good news.

SOUNDBITE (English), Sara CERDAS (S&amp;D, PT), Member of the COVI committee, You are working on vaccine boosters, as you said. What is the point at the moment and has all the data that has been supporting this booster vaccine been submitted to the regulatory authorities?

SOUNDBITE (French), V&#233;ronique TRILLET-LENOIR (Renew, FR), Member of the COVI committee, As the representative ot the citizens in this Parliament I haven&acute;t always appreciated your practices. Especially- for which reason you havent shared the preliminary results of Solidarity trial, which have not been very persuasive, with the EC? Only the day after signature of the contract?

SOUNDBITE (English), Jutta PAULUS (Greens/EFA, DE), Member of the COVI committee, How do you explain the differing outcomes of different studies with remdesivir, e.g. the WHO Solidarity study, which only found very limited efficacy of remdesivir?

SOUNDBITE (English), Rudolf ERTL, Senior Vice-President Commercial Operations, Gilead Sciences, if you treat too late, you don't see an effect. And what patients turned out to be having effect,are the patients which are having a pneumonia medium to severe and need oxygen or low flow oxygen. Once you move into respiration, respiratory system or invasive respiration, the product doesn't work that well anymore.

SOUNDBITE (English), Tomas TRIOMPHE, Executive Vice-President of Vaccines, Sanofi, As you know very well, we are under review by EMA . So decisions (about vaccine) coming in the coming few weeks. We have already started manufacture and of course, therefore, as soon as the marketing authorisation will be granted, we will start to supply European countries.

SOUNDBITE (English), Iskra REIC, Executive Vice-President AstraZeneca, Our vaccine is estimated to have saved six million lives globally, only in the first year of the vaccination.

SOUNDBITE (English), St&#233;phane Bancel, Chief Executive Officer, Moderna, In 2019, more than a small company of only 800 people around the world made only one hundred thousand doses of vaccines. In 2021, we shipped more than eight hundred million doses. That is eight thousand times increase in output.

SOUNDBITE (English), Mohammed CHAHIM (S&amp;D, NL), Member of the COVI committee, When you say nobody wants the vaccines, what do you really mean? That nobody wants the vaccines for the price you are asking?

SOUNDBITE (French), Mich&#232;le RIVASI (Greens/EFA, FR), Member of the COVI committee, Why, depending on contracts, the price of vaccines in Moderna and also Pfizer are rising? It was 18 EUR, now it is 22 EUR.

SOUNDBITE (English), St&#233;phane Bancel, Chief Executive Officer, Moderna, The question from Ms Rivasi on the price going up. I mean- as this Parliament is highly aware of -the inflation is out of control around the world right now. The cost of energy to make the factory run is going up tremendously, as you well know. Te cost of raw materials because a lot of those raw materials are made using course, chemicals are going up, salaries are going up, transportation costs going up, and suppliers costs also going up

SOUNDBITE (English), Iskra REIC, Executive Vice-President AstraZeneca, I think what is definitely clear is that covid is here to stay. And what is important to remember is that no matter how the next season will look like- I do believe that is probably the most important to think about those who are under higher risk of developing the severe disease or higher risk of being hospitalised or die in a hospital because of the severe covid.